Disability

Australasian films representing disability of some kind

Amy (Nadia Tass, 1998) prod. Nadia Tass, David Parker; wr. David Parker; dp David Parker; Rachel Griffiths, Alana de Roma, Ben Mendelsohn, Nick Barker, Kerry Armstrong, Jeremy Trigatti, William Zappa, Sullivan Stapleton, Torquil Neilson, Mary Ward, Susie Porter; little girl won't speak after the sudden death of her father, and will only communicate in song; she ceases to speak as a result of family trauma: her father, a rock musician, dies on stage as she watches

Hammers over the Anvil (Ann Turner, 1993) wr. Peter Hepworth, Ann Turner, novel Alan Marshall, dp James Bartle, prod. Ben Gannon; Charlotte Rampling, Russell Crowe; point of view is that of a crippled boy (based on novel by Alan Marshall, who had polio)

I Can Jump Puddles (1981) TV mini-series; story of Alan Marshall

Lilian's Story (Jerzy Domaradzki, 1996) prod. Marian Macgowan, novel Kate Grenville 1984, based on Bea Miles; Ruth Cracknell, Barry Otto, Toni Collette; we see Lilian's father having sex with her; review by Peter Malone in Cinema Papers, no. 110, June 1996; (cf. NZ film The Heart of the Stag, where there is less or no trauma; cf. also another film with Cracknell, The Singer and the Dancer); Collette won Best Supporting Actress AFIs 1996

Sound Of Love (John Power, 1978) John Jarratt, Celia de Burgh, George Ogilvie, Don Barker; Eileen and Dave meet when their affliction brings them together in a clinic for the deaf

Sugar Factory, The (Robert Carter, 1998) wr. Robert Carter; Rhondda Findleton, Michaela Noonan, John Waters, Tony Hayes; Best Film Hollywood Film Festival 1998; Matt Day as a mentally disturbed teenager, Harris, tormented by guilt over the death of a child; his half-sister, Christine, was taken away by her mother: he "fretted" and went crazy; also, he shut Rhondda Findleton's daughter in the fridge, playing hide-and-seek, and she died; but he ends up with RF; he tries to make things better, sitting under the house, making bags of "sugar" out of crushed stone